Blue Justice
by Kistelle
Summary: Politics usually gets in the way of justice, but not when you have the creative minds of children and the talent to not get caught. AU fic: follows Serena and the girls as Princesses, and as members of a hidden justice system. R&R !ON HIATUS!
1. Chapter 1

Ok. So this is the sailor moon fic i've been working on for a little while. It's an AU fic and for the first part is focused on comedy in the hopes you will be rolling on the floor laughing. Will be posting the first 3 chaps just now then hopefully a chap a week. Let me know what you think ok?

**Disclaimer for all chapters:** I don't own anything. Why do I still feel like a parrot?

**Chapter 1**

She sat there.

Her eyes were vacant.

Her mind however, was not. She was currently plotting her escape. It was the first floor, so the window was a dead end. The path to the door was blocked, so a distraction would be required. This was going to prove difficult, seen as the air-headed prince was utterly absorbed in talking about himself.

If Luna's lessons were boring, this boy's monologue was beyond painful. That and his girl's haircut put her over the edge into desperate to escape.

What didn't help was the condescending way he was talking to her. She was five, not two. _Why couldn't the trade discussion have been arranged for when I was visiting Mina?_ She thought on the verge of tears, wishing she was in the company of her cousin. _Right stop it! _She scolded herself. _I need to focus if I want to get out of here!_

With that she went back to plotting her escape, annoyed at the lack of availability of props.

( )( )

(^.^)

At that very moment, a rescue mission was on the way, in the form of an almost identical blue-eyed, blonde, five-year-old. The girl had arrived in a carriage with her parents, who were trying to stifle their giggles at their daughter's attempt of a heroic rescue of her beloved cousin. The golden princess raced inside the castle determined to learn the location of Serena's almost certain imprisonment.

_*Flashback*_

Mina was eating her breakfast, but paused with the spoon halfway to her mouth as she did a double take at her mother.

"You can't be serious!" She exclaimed when her mouth finally started working again, as the woman had just informed her that a certain Prince, with badly bobbed hair, was visiting her cousin's Kingdom to enter trade discussions. Memories flashed in her mind of the stuck up boy. Then she froze. Serena was cunning enough to escape Diamond's company, but had too kind a heart to do it as bluntly as the situation, more often than not, required.

"Now I know that Prince Diamond is a bit full of himself, but he can't be that bad. Can he?" her mother questioned.

"There's a reason he left here with no eyebrows, dear." Mina's father pointed out.

"How _did_ that happen?" she queried, looking towards the man of her heart.

Her husband smiled and looked towards their daughter. Following his gaze, she turned her questioning eyes to Mina.

"I simply said that it was impossible to re-light a used match." She said with her angelic face the picture of innocence.

"While hiding a can of hairspray behind her back." Her father put in with a smirk and twinkling eyes that matched his daughter's.

Her mother remained silent, which caused them both to look at her with baited breath, and wait for her reaction. She sat there like a statue for seemed like hours before a single tear fell down her cheek. "And I missed it?" she asked, earning surprised stares from the father and child, before she demanded "Next time I want a front row seat!"

This took all of three seconds to sink in before Mina and her father burst out laughing.

"Chrysanthia dear, I knew there was a reason why I loved you."

"I love you too, Apollon darling, but we still have the problem of our niece being stuck with a pompous prince."

"We have to help her!" Mina demanded.

"We will." Chrysanthia reassured her. "Darling, you fancy visiting your sister-in-law?"

"Always a pleasure." He agreed, always happy to have the entertainment his daughter and niece would bring when unwanted guests were concerned. Suddenly excited about the day to come, he quickly shovelled the rest of his food into his mouth and rung the bell for one of the servants. An elderly servant with laughing eyes entered the room and bowed. "Please have the carriage prepared as soon as possible. We are going to visit Queen Serenity and perform a rescue."

"Will you be staying the night, your Majesty?" the servant asked.

"Yes." He replied. It was never easy to separate the two girls without spending at least 24 hours in each other's company.

_*End Flashback*_

"Have fun!" Apollon called after her laughing, before he turned back to help his heavily pregnant wife step down from the carriage.

"I bet you 30 gold pieces that she goes for the hair." She challenged while rearranging her own violet hair that fell straight passed her hips to the middle of her thighs.

"You're on!" he said, eagerly taking up her bet. "You didn't hear her rant about a boy getting a French manicure." He said under his breath.

"Did you say something?" she questioned with narrowed golden eyes.

"Nothing!" Apollon answered a bit too quickly with a shake of his blonde head.

By this point Mina had taken off through the halls and corridors of the castle searching for Serena, running so fast that objects and people became blurs. That is, until her searching gaze locked onto a sandy blonde head. Though not the golden blonde she was looking for, it was close enough. "Andrew!" she called.

His head swilled at his name and zeroed in on his bubbly cousin. His face spilt into a wide grin. Where there was Mina; there was some form of hilarity. "Hey!" he greeted. "What brings you here?"

"I heard about the visit from the Prince of Doom." She replied, but quickly returned to her initial objective. "Where's Serena?" she enquired.

"She's in the Oak Room with Prince Pompous." He told her with a disgusted look on his face and shuddered, causing something cream-coloured to fall to the ground.

Mina was distracted by the movement and quirked her eyebrow at him.

He gave her a boyish grin and produced the box of popcorn he had hidden behind his back.

"What's with the popcorn?"

"I was just heading over to the Oak Room."

Mina grinned with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Care to help me with preparations for the show?"

"I am at your service Milady." He bowed.

"Excellent." She concluded with a voice seeped in evil as she rubbed her hands together.

( )( )

(^.^)

Almost all hope of escape was gone. She had tried to distract him with dropping things, pointing to imaginary objects of interest outside the window and even tried to get herself excused to the ladies room, but nothing had worked. Trying to get him to at least change the topic of discussion to something interesting was as impossible as getting a paper cut off a wet sponge. Serena was now staring into her half empty tea cup, vaguely wondering if she could drown herself in it. Just when she was ready to resign herself to the fate of an eternity with the dull Prince, there was a very slight tapping on the window. Cautiously, she glanced to her side and saw a small portion of Andrew's hair and a single eye in the corner of the window.

_Rats!_ She thought infuriated at herself. _I forgot the stupid ivy trellis!_ She grumbled inside her head before turning her attention back to her darling elder brother, who had pretended to be at a friend's to get out of Diamond's company, and slyly raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to proceed with any explanation he had for his hidden presence.

He showed her his full grinning face before pulling back and lifting up Artemis.

Hope shined in her eyes.

Andrew quickly pointed to the closed window.

Serena winked her understanding when Diamond was not looking.

Andrew ducked out of view as Serena asked the Royal Pain in the Ass "Would you mind if I opened the window? The heat is making it stuffy in here."

"Of course not." Diamond replied too smooth for his years. He constantly failed to realise that his charms, if he had any at this point, would be completely lost on a five-year-old.

Using everything she had to neither grin, nor approach the window too eagerly, Serena opened the window and returned to her seat, wishing she had some way in which to capture the next few minutes in order to relive it over and over again.

Andrew crept towards the open window with the cat, but had to dive for cover when Diamond turned to the window.

Panic set in and Serena's mind raced as she tried to think of ways to get him away from the window. She briefly remembered him talking about his love for the sea and her eyes darted towards the pearl-like sea shell on the far table.

"I forgot to ask." She started. "I also love the sea, so I was wondering if you had seen a shell like this one before."

His interest perked, he looked away from the window and headed towards the object she now stood beside. When he past her and was busy looking at the shell, Serena gave Andrew an enthusiastic thumbs up and he returned to reaching towards the window, Artemis held in his outstretched hand. Serena held her breath and hoped her brother would finish his task before Diamond turned round and caught him, but they were in luck, as Diamond had not seen such a shell before and was one to quietly ponder this in his mind for a while before asking any questions – in the hope to come out looking like he knew all the answers from the beginning.

As soon as Artemis was on the window ledge, he jumped down to the floor and made his way over to the youths. "I'm just getting more tea." Serena told Diamond who didn't even notice her absence.

Artemis gave her a sly wink as she headed for the door. He moved to just behind Diamond, sat down with his tail curled around him and let out the cutest 'meow' Serena had ever heard from him.

Diamond froze and turned around painfully slowly until he was fully facing the cat and looked as if he was facing his worst nightmare, before he exploded into hysterics.

Waving his arms like a madman, he jumped up and down so high and at such a speed he was air-borne more than he was grounded. However, it was his high pitched scream that made her fear for her life, considering she had lost the ability to breathe due to laughing. She didn't know whether she was going to burst or suffocate. He darted for the door, but Artemis dashed and put himself between Diamond and Serena, effectively cutting Diamond off from the door, but leaving his princess a free escape route – if she and Mina, who had opened the door for her cousin, ever managed to get off the floor.

It was only when Diamond's tone got more angry than scared and his accusing eyes started to bore into Mina that the girls managed to tone it down long enough to make it out the door.

With one last 'hiss' menacing enough to send Diamond cowering behind one of the couches, Artemis quickly followed the scheming girls. As soon as he was through the doorway Mina slammed the door shut and turned the key in the lock.

"Quick!" Mina commanded. "We have to get to the 'prep' room before he gets out."

Needing little encouragement Serena took off after her clone for their current base of operations while Artemis was left to guard the now cursing prince.

( )( )

(^-^)

The girls arrived at the 'prep' room in record time. It was their current base of operations, as they kept having to move it to save being discovered by their parents and forced to work with very limited supplies.

As soon as they entered, Mina flew towards a metal bucket sitting on one of the closer tables.

"What you got in there?" Serena asked, as she peered over Mina's shoulder.

"It will be quick set glue." She replied as she poured a white powder into the water and gave it a quick stir.

"Nice." Her cousin commented. "But how about we add this?" she suggested and reached for the bright pink glitter.

"You are a genius." Mina replied, remembering Diamond's determined dislike of the colour pink.

Together they tried to lift the bucket, but found it too heavy. After their third attempt they were about to give it up as a lost cause, until Andrew came stumbling in the door, breathless and still giggling. He was trusted with the location because he was usually their willing partner in crime, as they never plotted against one of their own. Remembering the boy was five years their senior, the girls looked at each other and shared a knowing smile.

He caught the look between them, pointed at the bucket and asked "You want me to carry that?"

The girls both nodded.

"Hand it over." He told them.

They speedily obliged and gave him the bucket. Together they sped off back to the scene of the crime, Serena grabbing a roll of string and lump of sticky putty on her way past the door.

Once back to the room Serena got on Andrew's shoulders and Mina set to work attaching the string to the base of the bucket with the putty. Once done, she passed it up to Serena, who was now within easy reach, being that Andrew was a very tall ten-year-old, of the ornate carving which stuck out several inches from the door. She looped the handle over the carving, close to the door, and strung the string over the end of it. Using another piece of putty she neatly secured the string to the top of the door then dropped the rest of it down to Mina to finish the job while she got off her brother's shoulders. Mina ignored Diamond's thumping on the other side of the door and tied the string to the door handle just in case the putty came loose, even though it had gone through repeated tests for reliability. She cut off the excess string and gave her fellow pranksters a silent thumbs up to make sure their victim did not become aware of their presence and get suspicious. They returned the gesture and retreated with the grinning white cat to the end of the corridor to observe their scheme coming to fruition after subtly sliding the key under the door.

Almost as soon as they reached the safety of the corner they heard the key turning in the lock. Smiling in pride, they watch Diamond cautiously open the door bit by bit, taking a shaky step each time, until finally the bucket tipped and its contents poured down onto his head and shoulders. With some unknown strength they held in their laughter.

"Crap!" Diamond exclaimed, examining his ruined clothes and messy hair. "My hair!" he yelled in horror after noticing the pink glitter. He moved to run his fingers through his hair to try and remove the glitter/glue combo, but found his hand stuck in his hair mid-motion. "What?" he asked no one in particular in a rising panic. All this havoc was giving him a headache, so he put his free hand to his forehead in hope to ease the pain. However, this hand also remained in place when he tried to remove it. "Oh ...no..." his voice cracked and he burst into tears and fled towards the conference room to seek comfort from his parents.

With the focus of their efforts finally out of ear-shot the children and cat gave into their urges and laughed themselves senseless.

"Well at least he'll finally have an interesting story to tell people." Serena managed to choke out between laughs.

"I'm afraid the emotional scars will cause him to block it out." Her brother countered.

"We'll just have to start planning for our next encounter." Mina deduced with devilish eyes.

The others nodded their agreement and they started back to the 'prep room' to celebrate their victory with their stash of soda and brownies Andrew swiped from the kitchen that morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

She searched the corridors and halls. She hunted in every room. She needed to find and scold the pesky demons, before congratulating them on a job well done. Most young children spent their days playing with imaginary friends and building secret dens, which her children also did, but as far as the use of imagination went they used it for the comedy and defence of others.

"Mama." said the small boy clinging to her skirts. Her two-year-old son was currently at the stage where he was constantly glued to her side, which had resulted in him attending the trade discussions. This, she realised, was a good thing when she learned of her niece's 'rescue mission'. She smiled down at him, loving how much he seemed to be a perfect mixture of herself and her Husband, Sorin. "Where's Sere?"

"That is the problem Sweetheart." She answered. "We are trying to find her." Then an idea struck her and she kneeled down in front of her son. "Do you know where Serena might be hiding?"

With love in his eyes he nodded.

"Can you tell me?"

The boy shook his head. "Sammy promised not to."

Queen Serenity sighed. "A good boy always keeps his promises." She smiled as he puffed out his chest in pride. She hoped his elder sister and brother would not influence him too much as he grew up, just enough to give him a head start in the strategic department. The Queen giggled at this thought, stood up and held her hand out to her son. "Let's go find your brother and sister."

"What about Mina?" he asked.

"When it comes to those two, where one is the other is never far away."

( )( )

(^-^)

The mother's search did not reveal the location of her children's hidden base and her next contact with said children was at dinner. As usual, the arrival of dinner did not need to be announced to the youngsters, their amazingly food sensitive noses told them faster than any shout could.

"Now Sister," Chrysanthia said to Serenity. "We may just get some answers for your weeping guest."

"Indeed." Serenity agreed.

They were not true sisters, both in fact had no siblings or cousins, but they had grown up with regular visits to each other's homes because of the friendship their parents shared. They were delighted when they learned that the men they were to marry were brothers and any children they had would be cousins, although Mina and Serena acted more like twins than cousins.

"Well Serena?" Queen Serenity asked testily. "Care to explain your actions this afternoon?"

"I hardly did anything." She defended.

"Please don't get angry at Sere! It was all me." Mina quickly said.

"And me." Andrew said to share the blame.

"I am also to blame your Majesty." A small voice admitted from the floor beside the Queen.

"Artemis." She let out a small gasp. "I see my daughter is finally starting to wear off on you."

The cat bowed his head.

"It's not Artemis's fault, really!" Mina tried to convince her aunt not to punish her cousins or feline friend.

"Mina's telling the truth!" Andrew added. "You didn't see what that Royal Idiot did to him."

"Forgive me your highness, but that is not an issue to concern yourselves with." Artemis pleaded with the prince. The royals had enough of their own problems to deal with. They may be excellent rulers, but he was still a servant.

"Nonsense." The Queen hushed with a warm smile to her loyal adviser. "Now Andrew, dear, what did he do?"

"Well remember you took them all for a tour of the gardens?"

"Yes." She urged him to continue.

"Well..." He fidgeted and shifted nervously in his seat. "After you introduced him to them and started to leave, Diamond...he..."

All eyes were on him and he didn't particularly like it.

Hoping to help her son out and thinking she knew what he was trying to say, she said "Are you talking about when he looked scared at first and then gave him a wide berth?"

"That... and..."

"He picked up a pebble from the raised tulip beds and threw it at Artemis." Serena said, causing the rest of the grown-ups to take a sharp intake of breath.

"Is this true?" Her mother asked the furry adviser.

"Yes, your Majesty."

"Did the stone hit you?" Concern was evident in her voice.

"Yes. It nicked me under the front leg."

"Have the healer take a look at it if it hurts, alright?"

"Of course."

"And you three are off the hook." She told the children with a smile. They cried out in relief and Apollon and his wife nodded in agreement, before everyone went back to their meal. No mother, yet alone a royal, should ever condone this sort of behaviour, but she always put family and friends first, which included Artemis and Luna. That reminded her of something... _oh yeah! _"Your father and Luna are due home tomorrow."

This was greeted all round with happiness, or utter joy in the case of all four children, and happy smiles appeared on the servants' faces too, as they all cared greatly for their King and his family. So with a cheerful atmosphere in the large dining room the family continued eating, though none quite so fast as Serena and Mina who were always desperate to get to their favourite course, dessert.

( )( )

(^-^)

Serenity, Chrysanthia, Apollon, Andrew, Serena, Mina and little Samuel (Sammy) were having a family tea in the front drawing room, or Willow Room as the children called it, on the gate side of the castle. It was a pleasantly warm day so all of the windows were wide open and cool fresh air flowed into the room, rustling the curtains. They all gossiped and chatted amongst themselves, mostly about their disliked recent guest, although the elder children were trying to lure Sammy over to the dark side. They were in the middle of describing how he would always have people to defend him if need be when Serena's head suddenly twitched before the blonde princess seemed to simply vanish from sight, leaving only an empty cup and open door in her wake.

"She only moves that fast for one thing." Andrew stated with child-like hope shining in his eyes, which seemed to spread to the other young royals.

Apollon nodded. "It seems that my brother is home."

No sooner than he had said it everyone, including himself, took off after Serena, but with the children at a significantly faster speed, and Queen Serenity keeping pace with them.

( )( )

(^-^)

The weary man came down off his horse. He hated the confines of a carriage. He really needed a new burst of energy as he started to climb the stairs, and if his timing was write he should have it in about '3, 2, 1...', "Umph!" He flew off the two stairs he had already climbed and landed on solid ground on his back, with a 5-year-old princess curled tightly into his chest in what appeared to be an attempt to restrict his ability to breathe. "Missed you too Sweetie." He said with a mega-watt grin on his face.

"You were away longer than you said you would be!" Serena whined with no sign of releasing her death-grip on her father.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, "but the royals of Theia and I really hit it off."

Serena looked at him with a scorning pout on her small face.

"We were having such a good time that I forgot all about home."

"Liar!" Serena pouted then laughed wanting to move onto more important matters. "Now...presents?"

"Let us get inside first." The King chuckled as he stood up and placed Serena back on her feet, but this was done so with him facing away from the steps and main door. Big mistake.

No sooner had he finished talking, three more living cannonballs launched onto his back with enthusiastic 'you're back's and 'Welcome home's, before a demanding chorus of "PRESENTS!". These demanding hitch-hikers were dislodged and told the same thing as his first attacker.

Turning to lead the group into the castle he was slammed into once again, but this one was far more pleasant as the silver-haired assailant had instantly wrapped their arms around his neck and landed a passionate kiss on his, in his opinion, deprived lips. Sorin loved the fact that if Serenity had to choose between being his wife, or his Queen, she would simply pick wife without hesitation.

Deciding to thank her for the affectionate welcome, he looped his right arm under her legs and scooped her up bridal style. He proceeded to carry her up the stairs and through the grand doorway, followed by the children who blushed and giggled at the 'inappropriate' behaviour of the grown-ups. Sorin was too busy staring into the eyes of his beloved to notice that he was close to walking straight into his younger brother and sister-in-law. He would have collided with them had Apollon not let out a laugh at how impulsive his elder brother could be at times, which most people put down to being a family trait.

Sorin skidded to a halt and looked up, only to break into a lop-sided grin he seemed to use for his brother alone. "Yo!" he greeted.

"Yell-o!" the sibling greeted back.

"What brings you to my side of the border?"

"Mina wanted to lead a rescue mission to save your daughter from, shall we say, _arrogant_ company."

Sorin's eyebrows went up as he threw is middle child a questioning glance, but decided to ask about it later at the uncomfortable expressions on the faces of her young relatives and herself. "So you fancied sticking around to see your Big Brother come home?"

"Actually, we just wanted to catch up with Serenity and Mina wanted to spend time with her cousins." Apollon shrugged and gave his wife a secret wink.

Sorin put on a heartbroken expression and made his voice sound cracked. "Are you saying you don't love your Big Bro?" he asked the married couple.

Apollon and Chrysanthia nodded smiling. This was a running joke from the boys' childhood when Sorin had gone on a long trip without Apollon for the first time. Upon his return he had been nearly strangled with Apollon's suffocating hug and drowned in his mad flow of tears. It had been endearing at the time, but it was forever too good a piece of joking material to pass up. From then on the younger brother was trying to not be put out or embarrassed by the elder. In this he was only mildly successful, and even his wife's occasional aid didn't help him much.

"You mean you don't care if you hurt your Brother's feelings?" Anyone who suddenly walked in would have thought the King was about to burst into tears as he looked from brother to sister-in-law.

"Yip." Chrysanthia chirped. They were going to win this round.

Sorin slouched his shoulders and bowed his head, while Apollon let out a cry of victory in his head, one look at his wife would say she was doing the very same, before Sorin's head snapped back up with a beaming smile. "Oh well!" he said with plenty of cheer in his voice before heading for one of his favourite rooms – the Willow room, leaving behind a surprised and rather put out royal couple.

_Well he's never used that tactic before,_ Apollon thought then glanced at his other half, who simply shrugged her shoulders with a small smile and herded the laughing children after the victorious pair. A second, or two, later he sighed in defeat and went to join the rest of the family.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Summer was always warm, but this summer was _hot_. However, the stuffy atmosphere did nothing to dampen the excitement of the two seven-year-old blondes babbling away in a carriage currently passing through the Mars Pass. They were on their first official visit outside of their own countries, along with King Apollon. His Queen was pre-occupied with two-year-old Er'ril, who had recently taken to having regular bouts of not listening to anyone and taking great pleasure in terrorising anyone he didn't like. His family was safe as he loved them all, especially his sister and Cousin Serena, but it was little comfort to Chrysanthia's nerves when she spent the majority of her day trying to apprehend the mischievous delinquent.

The King saw this trip as a perfect chance to acquire some of Theia's beautiful silks, but the girls saw it as an opportunity to make a couple of new friends, and perhaps expand their 'organisation' to a third country. Justice was needed everywhere right?

If their excitement had dimmed just a little bit they would have noticed that as they passed through the mountains that it was getting cooler. It was only when they entered the lowlands and started to get prickly goose-bumps on their arms that they noticed the drop in temperature. They would have thought it to be perfectly pleasant had they been wearing Serena's version of normal attire instead of the light sun dresses they currently had on. They were alone in the carriage as Apollon, like his brother, preferred to ride on a horse, but he too had noticed the change and, ever the thoughtful father, asked that one of Serena's trunks be handed into them so that they could change into something warmer.

On the day that they arrived there, evening had already fallen by the time they made it to the castle on the centre of Phoenix, the capital city of Theia. The girls took in all the sights on their approach to the castle with their mouths agape, but they were hidden within the darkness of their carriage so they had no need to worry over appearances. They had never seen such buildings, but then again they had only seen the architecture in each other's kingdoms before. The city was full of houses with tall roofs that curled up at the corners. There was not a single oil lamp in sight. It was all torches or elevated fire pits, which only enhanced the stunning effects of the city's colours. Blood reds mixed with deep violets, and together they were swirled around by blacks and ornate gold. All of which were accompanied by interlocking, geometric, swirling patterns with decorative murals of cherry blossoms, dragons, lotus flowers and birds, each one seemed to tell a different story.

Mina spied many side streets going off of the main ones and spotted the many stalls and shops they would host during the day. One look at her almost twin beside her told her that Serena had also spotted them. They shared a look and a quick nod, if nothing else good came of this visit, they would at least not leave with empty hands and full purses. Well, Serena had a full purse as a gift from her parents; Mina on the other hand had her own walking bank called 'Daddy' with her.

Their observations continued as they wheeled up to the castle. When Serena saw it she though it to be more a giant palace than a castle, as it looked nothing like her home back in the city of Selene or Mina's home Loredana, capital of Lior. It looked like the more ornate and expensive house and mansions in the city, but on a far grander scale. There was a tall straight wall surrounding the entire palace, with a three-story tower in each corner, with a large wooden gate in the centre of the front wall with a vast number of story-telling murals carved into it. Serena thought she could become lost in all the stories it had to tell. The palace itself was never more than two-very large-stories tall with white and red walls, and red and gold circular windows. The roofs, as the first floor had the outer edges of a roof while the second had the full thing on top, were covered in small, black tiles and the edges were lined with deep red wood. Each corner curled in the same way as those in the city, but here each corner also supported a golden figure of a beautiful bird, but both Serena and Mina could not make out just what kind of bird it was. They did however agree that it was the most stunning creature they had ever seen.

As they got closer, they could just see from their vantage point that there was in fact several buildings that were connected by a simple network of raised, open-aired, roofed walkways. These had the same black tiled roof as the buildings and were lined with railings of the same geometric, swirling pattern as the rest of the city.

When the carriage finally came to a halt and the young princesses stepped out, with the help of their ever smiling footman, they smiled back at him and found themselves under a roofed entrance area in front of the main doors to the palace. The doors currently stood open and had five ornately dressed individuals standing just outside of it. They were obviously there to welcome the visitors. In the centre stood a couple who could never be mistaken for anyone other than the King and Queen.

The Queen wore a midnight blue gown with long, flared sleeves that seemed to fall straight from her shoulders, and had a wide piece of ocean blue silk with gold birds embroidered on it wrapped around her waist and tied in a large odd bow at the back. Serena was amazed at the Queen's beauty. Her midnight dress showed off her figure perfectly and the blue brought out the slightly blue shine to her long, wavy black hair. The King wore a long sleeved coat that came down to the back of his knees and was of a blue only a couple shades lighter than that of his wife's dress. It had a black cord stitched to all the edges, which was put into small swirls at the corners and the outer sides of the cuffs. The collar was short and square, the same as the shirt underneath, which was an identical blue to his coat and it also had black cord in a similar style, but this one was laced with gold thread. The shirt itself was decorated with a single golden bird on each side of the opening at his neck, the same fascinating birds as the ones on the Queen's waistband and figurines on the roof. Apart from this the King only had on slightly baggy, plain, midnight blue trousers which were tucked into wide, black boots that came halfway up his shins.

To the left of the King stood two identical boys with pitch black hair and matching eyes that sparkled with mischief, in whom Serena and Mina quickly saw kindred souls ready to be brought into the fold of their 'justice system'. They wore very similar outfits to their father, although without the coat. This revealed the shirts to have short sleeves and a long sleeved plain shirt under it, with the cuffs edged in gold stitching.

To the right of the Queen was the princess, the one who the girls hoped would soon be their new friend. She was a miniature version of her mother with her long black hair, but hers was straight and had a more purple than blue tint to it that was brought out by her large violet eyes. Her dress was almost exactly like the Queen's, but had the neckline start much closer to her neck, as she was still just a child after all.

"Welcome King Apollon!" the King boomed happily as he stepped forward with both hands extended towards his guest, as if he was an old friend. "If you are anything like your brother I believe your visit will be happily remembered by us all for a long time."

Before Apollon could answer, Mina jumped in with a giant smile on her face. "Daddy is funnier, but Uncle Sorin likes to bring home more presents." She finished with a girly giggle and widened her smile as she looked to the shy princess. This was answered with a blank look, either the girl felt little in way of emotion, or for some reason she was careful not to let any show.

The King however was amused. He laughed heartily and said "Yes, I do remember him buying enough to outfit an entire palace!"

This got a good chuckle out of Apollon. "That does sound like Sorin." He put a hand on each of Mina's shoulders from behind. "As you may have already guessed, this little ray of sunshine is my eldest, Mina, and this," he moved his right to Serena's left shoulder, "is Sorin's second child, Serena." He introduced them then removed his hands.

"A pleasure." The King beamed as he bowed towards the three visitors. The gesture was returned with a bow from Apollon and surprisingly graceful curtsies from both Mina and Serena.

The Queen smiled at the lovely picture the pair made and stepped forward. "Seen as my husband has apparently been stunned by our two pretty visitors," she winked at the girls earning a pair of childish grins from them, and a 'what about me' pout from Apollon, in return, "I see it falls to me to introduce the rest of us." She curtsied and said, "I am Queen Raven of Theia." She swept an elegant arm in the direction of the twins. "These are our two sons, Phobos and Daemos." Each boy bowed, like they had been told, at the mention of their names in turn. Raven then turned to the right, and with an encouraging smile to her daughter, introduced her to their guests. "And this is our daughter Princess Rei."

Everyone was now looking at Rei and she looked rather uncomfortable with all the attention with her eyes shifted to the ground as she gave a quick curtsy. When she sensed that most of the groups eyes were off her she chanced a look up and caught Apollon giving her a warm, encouraging smile, which caused the corners of her own lips to quirk upwards just a bit. This exchange was noticed by Serena and mentally noted down, along with the hope that Rei was actually a nice person.

"We were expecting you to arrive about this time, so we had dinner prepared a little later than usual. I am sure you are hungry." Raven moved gracefully to the side and gestured for them to follow her inside.

Mina and Serena had no need to look behind them to know the expression on Apollon's face. It would be a hilarious mix of weary relief and pure, childish joy. They quickly moved up the three steps to the main doorway and followed Theia's King and Queen. They were then followed by Theia's royal children.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Dinner went as it usually did for Apollon, Mina and Serena, which meant that it was full of laughter and conversation. However, it soon became apparent that this was a very welcome change as Astor explained when Serena brought up the subject, hiding her rude curiosity behind her childish innocence, an ability all children seem to master instantly.

"Well sweet princess," Astor began, "My wife and I quickly turn our conversations to that of official matters." He smiled at his beloved wife before continuing his explanation. "Rei enjoys quietly pondering things to herself," at this he tried to give his daughter a reassuring smile, but she quickly averted her eyes to look down at her plate and carefully kept her face expressionless. This caused a sad frown to cross the King's face, but he quickly erased it so as to not lose the lively atmosphere that had taken over the dining room. "And we have my sons." Astor said with a fake stern face. "When they're not executing a mischievous mission, they're planning one, and dinning always seems to be a prime planning opportunity." He finished with a laugh. He was strangely proud that his sons had the courage to be the witty brats he could never have been.

Apollon chuckled. "They would get on well with these two." He nodded towards the two blondes. "Along with Andrew and Samuel, Serena's brothers, they have only confessed to a few tricks, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have gotten away with more pranks than my wife has pairs of shoes." The King and queen turned shocked eyes to the two seemingly innocent girls who, after a couple of seconds, broke out into identical grins.

"I don't know Daddy. That's a _lot _of shoes."

The resident royal pair chuckled and shared similar thoughts that it was going to be an interesting few weeks

_And positive in more ways than one_, Raven thought as she glanced over at the still silent Rei. She was worried that something was deeply troubling her, but she would never say, so the worried queen kept the frown from her face and continued enjoying the meal, and the vibrant company of the guests.

( )( )

(^-^)

The next couple of days saw King Apollon lose track of his daughter and niece with incredible speed. Little was also seen of the twin princes so, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, Apollon just knew that the two pairs of trouble makers had joined forces. If they truly were behind the increased number of pranks he had to give them credit. The tricks were never played on just anyone, there was always something wrong the person had done and got away with, but more than that – there was nothing to link any of them to the scene of the crime, nothing except a small, white, rectangular card with a blue infinity symbol in the middle. He thought it was best not to mention to the confused parents that the cards were identical to the ones found in both Chandra and Lior.

_This level of organisation is scary_, the golden-haired King thought, _and the girls are only seven years old, they still have years left to perfect their tactics_. He shuddered at thought, but was not as troubled as one should expect. He was relatively happy as long as they kept up with their other studies and he was not their target on too many occasions.

The first major prank to occur was clever in that many could easily have imagined it happening without any interference from anyone, but it just so happened that it occurred on the very same day that Rei and the nanny had taken Serena and Mina into town. If Apollon had learned anything from past experiences then this was in no way a coincidence. It happened like this.

One of King Astor's, shall we say 'larger', under lords had made some very unnecessary comments to one of the fabric makers in the city and, according to witness statements, the Royal party were standing at the door of the shop in question when the exchange took place. The 'gentleman' had then returned to his carriage to go to a secluded antique store in a side street just around the corner. Then next time the man was seen his carriage was pulling around the corner, back onto the main street before all four wheel supports suddenly snapped and the compartment crashed to the ground. With the lord's bad reputation combined with the thought that his weight caused his over used mode of transport to collapse, had all those present who knew whom was in the carriage to howl with laughter. After some of his own personal, and secret, investigations, Apollon had learned from a carpenter next door to the antique store that he was missing two round files for about 20 minutes after the lord had pulled up outside. What made this occurrence significantly odd was that when the two files reappeared in the exact same spot they had disappeared from, they were accompanied by two silver pieces. The last bit of information was that this was the same time and duration that Mina and Serena seemed to vanish from the sight of Rei and the nanny.

The second, larger, plot took place 6 days after the arrival of blue-blooded visitors, and two days after the hiring of the new kitchen manager. The new employee had taken to scolding one of the younger scullery maids, but unluckily for him, as King Astor had informed Apollon, it was the same maid that had befriended the princes and princess and often brought them treats, such as cakes hot out the oven. On this particular day the new employee decided to tail the maid and look over her shoulder with everything she did. As unsettling as this would have been for the poor girl, it easily freed her from any blame of the manager's fate when it came time to prepare that day's dinner. He headed towards the kitchens with the now distraught maid ordered to walk in front so that she couldn't 'make a quick dash and hide from proper work', as the stupid man had put it. This of course meant that she entered the kitchen door first and made her way to her station. He, on the other hand, was left to close the door. After doing so he turned around, as if to follow the scullery maid yet again, but that was as far as he got. Before he could take another step, a large tuna swung by its tail fin to collide squarely with the entire right side of his body, including his face, before the force of the impact sent him to his left, right into a large ice tray with melting salty water that had recently been emptied of fish. He stormed from the room in an embarrassed rage and promptly returned dried off and in fresh clothes, but could not remove the distinct fish aroma. He inspected the scene to try and identify the perpetrator/s, but only found a small, white, rectangular card with a blue infinity symbol in the middle wedged under the fish's gill.

Apollon knew that the appearance of the card meant the involvement of the two girls under his protection, not that he saw fit to tell anyone this because he had thought the new servant to be a stuck-up jerk and muffled chuckles, along with many others, at all the fish jokes and mentions made in the man's presence. Things like 'something's fishy about that story', 'ya' know you're really getting under my scales', 'flap your fins, we have work to do', 'if you don't hurry up the guards will have nothing but tuna sandwiches for supper' and 'don't drink so much, you're not a fish'. Even if no comments could be made, people would make a subtle hand gesture of fanning their hands under their nose, as if trying to blow away an unwanted smell, or lightly slap the side of their face. All of the children, both in the city streets and the palace, had joyfully taken to playing 'sharks and carps' so that the vile man could not escape the torment even if he left the palace for a brief respite.

Even the King and Queen got in on the fun by requesting anything but fish be cooked for their meals as there seemed to be a lingering scent of it around the complex and it was making them feel queasy. Three days of this treatment had the man loudly announce that he quit and march out of the palace, much to everyone's relief. No member of staff could be fired without very good reason, besides, this way was far more fun.

( )( )

(^-^)

The girls were enjoying their stay in Phoenix. They were unbelievably happy that the twins enjoyed their version of 'justice', but were ecstatic when they asked to join them in their endeavours. Serena quickly saw that their help was a desperate needed, as many of the noble children liked to bully the twin princes for their unusual appearance, and Rei for her almost complete silence and secluded nature. Both of the boys had been impressed with Serena and Mina's quick thinking in the city when they had told them just how it was done, but it wasn't until the joint effort of the 'fish slap' that Serena had asked Mina about the possibility of an alliance.

"They do have some good ideas." Mina said, liking the proposal, but something was bothering her. "The only thing is that they may be too young to pull anything off until they're older when we're not here, which will be a _lot_ of the time."

Serena went quiet and thought about it for a while. Anyone who looked at her would have thought that she was trying to figure out the meaning of life with the volume of concentration she was showing. "What if we tell them that they have to prove they have what it takes and plan and carry out a big plan all on their own?"

Mina's face lit up. "That's brilliant! If they can't manage it then they're not ready for it just yet."

Both girls grinned at their 'intelligence' and jumped into the air, doing a high-five in the process.


End file.
